Call It A Dinner Date If You Will
by sctwilightvampwolfgal
Summary: Hawkmoth wanted to meet up for dinner, only Ladybug and him, and for once, he was not trying to steal her Miraculous.


She shouldn't be standing here, shouldn't let him pull out her chair for her.

"Why do you want me here, Hawkmoth?" Her voice is steely and confident, her posture stiff, and her mind half in shambles over this 'secret' that he'd insisted upon.

"I just wanted to spend sometime getting to know the superheroine of Paris better." He shrugged lightly, and her eyes followed the movement with a slight glare, distrustful of his motivations.

"Do you just want my Miraculous?" She felt as if she'd aged in a single moment.

"No, not tonight." He shrugged and sent an encouraging smile her way, "You remind me of my late wife when we were both younger."

"Do I?" She looked away, wondering how the staff here felt about serving a supervillain and superhero today.

"Yeah, you never give up, you fight for what you believe in, and you're a confident, energetic woman." Hawkmoth answered her easily.

"Is that why you called me here?" She'd never known that Hawkmoth could reach out to her, but she figured that it had something to do with his Kwami.

"Not quite." His smile didn't fade with his answer though he let her order anything that she wanted to.

She sighed and wondered vaguely what Cat Noir was doing this evening; he clearly hadn't either heard about this 'date' nor was he transformed.

Ladybug leaned forward and sincerely hoped that Hawkmoth really wasn't trying to get her Miraculous for an evening; the past few days had been strangely Akuma free and while she still wouldn't trust him within an inch of her, she knew that she'd just have to wait this one out.

"So what do you think of Paris?" It was a lame starter, but there was some sort of twinkle to his eyes that she could just tell existed past the suit.

"I like it. I've grown up here, and yet I still find myself admiring certain parts of it all over again." Ladybug smiled, easily remembering moments spent sketching or working on new designs throughout Paris, "You?" She felt ridiculously stupid asking such a question of Hawkmoth when she should really be fighting him.

"It's home, I guess." He shrugged, "I've done some traveling to elsewhere, but I always come back to this old city." It was casual, and he didn't seem to care either way.

"What do you do when you aren't causing mayhem?" She was genuinely curious despite herself and all of the logic in her brain screaming at her to not just ask him simply questions but defeat him once and for all; Cat Noir wasn't here, so she probably shouldn't test fate by attacking Hawkmoth.

"I mostly work." Hawkmoth shrugged, "I do a few other things, but none of them are really notable or not too revealing as to who I am behind the mask."

Ladybug shook her head though she smiled dimly, "I can only imagine."

"What do you do in your civilian life, dear Ladybug?" He asked her, casually and yet the endearment on her name froze her up.

"I help my parents out with their business usually, go to class, spend time with friends, and naturally work towards my dreams." It was simple and kind of vague and hopefully didn't reveal too much.

"Ahh..." His eyes had to be twinkling again though he didn't say any more on that line of thought.

Ladybug focused on the food that arrived then and wondered if there was a reason that Hawkmoth really had called her out tonight to have dinner and just chat about mundane topics.

Hawkmoth surprisingly or rather unsurprisingly when Ladybug thought about it had amusing tales of the Akumatized victims, casually discussing their namesakes, and practically groaning with embarrassment with the rather poorly named ones.

She couldn't help her startled laughter, and Akumas were a relatively safe topic to discuss anyway; Akumas couldn't give away her identity in the least.

Ladybug did excuse herself an hour later, explaining easily that if she stayed too much longer that he wouldn't be sitting across the table from Ladybug anymore; he waved if off with an easy smile.


End file.
